Wednesday, January 5, 2011

My MIL's better than your MIL

I know a few of you thinking, "ha! That's not hard!" I'm sorry your MIL is really Stinky McStinkypants. I hit the jackpot on inlaws. I am really really really grateful for them. Sure, we have a few apples that need to be thrown a bit further from the tree, but all in all, D and I both married in to pretty good families.

The first time I met MIL, I wasn't so sure. D and I became engaged while at college. I hadn't met his parents, but he told me how great they were. I told him my step-dad was in the Army and might pulverize him. I figured I could embellish the truth on my parents, too, if he was going to tell me how awesome his were.The family can be a bit overwhelming at times. As a mom to 6 kids myself, I now understand how things get so loud. As a young 19 year old who grew up without a large family...it was daunting. I could barely keep track of names (all but one start with a D). The family stories were like nothing I had experienced before. There weren't really any funny family stories from when I was a kid.

It was like going from 0 to 60 in the family department.

I was intimidated by the family and my future MIL. A lot.

Turns out his mother is actual a saint. She's the type of woman who, if she were hugely pregnant and crossing the plains with the pioneers, she would have been all "Oh don't mind me. I 'm just gonna stop here in the tall grass and have a baby. Go on ahead. I'll catch up." She would have been very matter of fact about it and not at all passive aggressive. In fact, after she had one of her kids, she came home THAT DAY and finished canning 20 quarts of peaches.

She is an amazing example of patience, humor, grace and lots more patience. I totally want to be like her when I grow up. She's the HER I want to be.And she stays out of my business, even when I ask her to butt in:

ME: MIL, your son is driving me NUTS! What's the best way to handle him on this?

4 comments:

Love it, I too have a great MIL that I love to death. I was welcomed into the family with open arms and treated as part of the family for almost 21 years now. I actually stayed with MIL/FIL for 2 weeks alone when Alex was about 19 months old as my mom was sick and we could not go to NY to visit them. Those were the best 2 weeks, never critized anything about how I was raising her grandson, and we just had a great time together. We are both blessed to have such awesome role models in our lives!!